BETWEEN THE LINES

Time to ban X-ACTO knives

Exclusive: Joseph Farah employs 'satire with a blunt point' in wake of attack at college

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

With more than a dozen people stabbed on the campus of Lone Star Community College in Texas yesterday by a man with a small knife who ran from building to building randomly attacking individuals along the way, what other conclusion can we draw?

Twelve of 14 victims were hospitalized for their wounds – two of them in critical condition.

One report suggested the weapon may have been an X-ACTO knife, a weapon available without background checks at most arts and craft stores and without age requirements. They are even used in the classrooms of some elementary schools in the U.S.

With the lessons learned in the Newtown, Conn., massacre, it’s clear that the possession and sale of knives like this warrant congressional scrutiny. And, after all, there is no constitutional protection for the bearing of knives.

There’s a reason that even steel dinner knives are not permitted in the secure areas of the nation’s airports. They are potentially deadly weapons. The 9/11 hijackers carried only box-cutters – not much different than X-ACTO knives.

In 2011, FBI data show, more people were murdered with knives, “hands or feet” or “clubs and hammers” than with any type of rifle. In fact, stabbing and beating deaths are 900 percent higher than rifle deaths in the U.S. So-called “assault rifles” are rarely the weapon of choice in murders.

In countries like China, that ban firearms for citizens, more people are murdered with knives than any other weapon.

It’s not just China, by the way, where knife attacks are the preferred means of assault by criminals. Look at the statistics in all countries where guns are routinely banned. Knife attacks are not daily occurrences, they are hourly occurrences.

High-capacity magazines are no more dangerous than high-powered cars, if not misused. However, high-powered cars are misused every day. The 2012 Census Bureau Statistical Abstract reflects 33,808 deaths tied to exceeding the speed limit and more than 10,000 DUI deaths including 211 children.

There are some 44,000 deaths per year by vehicle misuse, and in 2011 only 8,583 murders with guns of any kind.

But back to knives.

Some of the worst massacres in China recently have been caused by murderers wielding knives or axes.

With the current hysteria over guns in the U.S., it’s only a matter of time before this becomes the case in here.

Think about it.

Driving a car is a privilege. Owning a firearm is a constitutionally protected right. Carrying a knife is neither. It’s not even regulated!

Neither, might I add, is carrying a baseball bat, which can also be used as a deadly weapon. In some baseball parks, they are actually given away to tens of thousands of fans on special “bat days.”

What’s next – monogrammed knife days?

Of course, I’m being facetious.

But it’s satire with a blunt point, so to speak.

It’s really true that guns don’t kill people; people kill people.

It’s been going on since Cain slew Abel, long before the firearm was invented.

Unlike most other primitive weapons, guns are a great equalizer. A woman or small man or elderly person bearing a firearm is much less likely to be a victim of an attack. You would think those who claim to be compassionate and watching out for the “little guy” would embrace firearms as weapons of equality, safety and security.

But they don’t.

For some reason, the advocates of gun bans want to see government maintain a monopoly on force.

That’s really all you need to know about their motives.

They believe in the unlimited power of government – a very un-American idea.

Receive Joseph Farah's daily commentaries in your email

BONUS: By signing up for Joseph Farah’s alerts, you will also be signed up for news and special offers from WND via email.

Name*

FirstLast

Email*

Where we will email your daily updates

Postal code*

A valid zip code or postal code is required

Click the button below to sign up for Joseph Farah's daily commentaries by email, and keep up to date with special offers from WND. You may change your email preferences at any time.